TweakTown News Posts - Page 4

Google has reportedly reached a milestone in its artificial intelligence research, showing off an algorithm that could beat a human being playing Atari video games. Not only playing it, but it was learning from the experience, just as we would, according to a paper published by Nature last week.

Demis Hassabis, one of the authors from the paper said: "We can go all the way from pixels to actions as we call it and actually it can work on a challenging task that even humans find difficult. We know now we're on the first rung of the ladder and it's a baby step, but I think it's an important one". The team started their work at DeepMind, which is the London-based start up that Google acquired back in January 2014. When they joined Google, they began looking at ways of baking their intelligence into Google products.

The researchers then began working with Atari games, which had more complicated 3D environments, which Hassabis says the algorithm would be able to beat those games within the next five years. Hassabis added: "Ultimately the idea is that if this algorithm can race a car in a racing game then also essentially with a few extra tweaks it should be able to drive a real car. But that's again, even further away than that".

MWC 2015 - SanDisk has come out of nowhere unveiling the new 200GB Ultra microSDXC UHS-I Premium Edition, with a gigantic 200GB of storage on a tiny little microSD card.

The largest microSD card that SanDisk made up until now was 128GB, but this new 200GB card is capable of 90MB/sec. Even at 90MB/sec, it would take around 35 minutes to fill the card and its 200GB capacity. The new SanDisk 200GB Ultra microSDXC UHS-I Premium Edition is only compatible with Android smartphones and tablets.

What does a 200GB microSD card cost? $400, which is four times the cost of a 128GB card on Amazon right now. SanDisk sweetens the deal offering you 10 years of warranty, which is a very nice touch.

The US federal government is worried about a growing number of cases related to Stolen Identity Refund Fraud (SIRF), with criminals filing state and federal taxes - and making off with the tax refunds. Tax-related identity theft was the most reported type of fraud submitted to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in 2014, with the agency receiving 109,063 complaints.

Recently, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) issued another public advisory to remind people that any telephone calls or emails claiming to be the IRS are fraudulent. In these scams, criminals ask victims to provide personal information or transfer money to them.

"It is a massive problem," said Brian Krebs, independent cybersecurity investigative reporter, in a statement published by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. "It's probably going to emerge as the biggest identity theft problem this year."

MWC 2015 - After announcing the new Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 edge smartphones, Samsung has teased that it has a new Gear VR Innovator Edition coming.

The new Gear VR will work with the new Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 edge smartphones, taking advantage of those beautiful new Super AMOLED panels and their QHD resolutions. The new Gear VR is 15% smaller than the original Gear VR, has a USB port on it, redesigned straps which give it "better weight balance" and mechanical ventilation that will make wearing the Gear VR for longer periods of time more comfortable.

MWC 2015 - Shock horror! Samsung has just unveiled the new Galaxy S6 at Mobile World Congress 2015 at its Samsung Unpacked event.

Samsung's CEO, J.K. Shin, took the stage to unveil the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 edge official. The new Galaxy handsets have an all-new design, with wireless charging built into the smartphones finally. We have a 5.1-inch QHD display (2560x1440) with pixel density hitting a huge 576PPI. Samsung has continued the use of its great Super AMOLED display technology on both the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 edge.

Inside, we have Samsung's incredible 14nm, 64-bit, 8-core Exynos processor with 3GB of LPDDR4 RAM making it one of the fastest, if not the fastest handsets on the market. On the back, we have a 16-megapixel camera. The Galaxy S6 edge has the dual edge display, which will show users details like the time, weather and notifications on its side. One of the downsides of the two new handsets, is that Samsung has removed the microSD slot, which means we do not have expandable storage now. A move toward the way Apple does things with its iPhone. The company has also cut out the removable battery, which is another downer.

MWC 2015 - Acer just unveiled its new Liquid Leap+ smartband, but the company has also unveiled its new Windows 8.1-powered smartphone, the Liquid M220.

The new Liquid M220 is powered by Windows 8.1, but it will be upgradeable to Windows 10 when it's released later this year. Acer has a 4-inch display with 233 pixels per inch (PPI), the full suite of Microsoft applications like OneDrive, Skype, Office and more. We have a 5-megapixel rear-facing camera backed up by a 2-megapixel front-facing camera.

The Liquid M220 is a cheap handset coming in at under $90, and will be made available through select EMEA retailers in April.

MWC 2015 - The wearables game is heating up with Mobile World Congress now kicking off, with Acer announcing its next-gen Smart activeband products, starting with the new Liquid Leap+.

Acer's new Liquid Leap+ supports multiple operating systems, with Android, iOS and Windows being supported. We have a 1-inch OLED touchscreen that gets slapped onto your wrist, with the wristband coming in many different colors giving you some personalization. The Liquid Leap+ tracks users' steps, running distance, and calories burned.

The Liquid Leap+ is a wearable that can be worn day and night thanks to its waterproof certification (rated IPX7). Music controls are also provided, where you can play, pause, previous, and next song through your favorite tunes. The Acer Liquid Leap+ is powered by Bluetooth 4.0 LE, and uses Acer Leap Manager to communicate between your Liquid Leap+ and iOS, Android and Windows.

MWC 2015 - Acer has just announced its new Liquid Jade Z smartphone, with the company teasing its Zero Air Gap technology that will get rid of those annoying reflections, all while it's protected by Gorilla Glass 3 from Corning.

The Liquid Jade Z also features 4G LTE (Cat 4), a 64-bit quad-core MediaTek processor, 13-megapixel rear-facing camera which is backed up by a 5-megapixel selfie snapper. Acer calls the new Liquid Jade Z "wallet-friendly" as it is just 7.9mm slim and weighs only 110g. The Liquid Jade Z can also be easily connected to Windows PCs thanks to AcerEXTEND.

Acer will have the Liquid Jade Z available through EMEA retailers later this month.

MWC 2015 - HTC has surprised the world, giving me goosebumps in the meantime, by announcing at Mobile World Congress that they've partnered up with Valve on a VR headset.

HTC's new Vive headset will feature a room-scale experience, features 70 sensors, full 360-degree tracking where you can walk around your environment, 90Hz refresh rate, and it will come with two wireless controllers. HTC's Vive headset will be compatible with Valve's SteamVR service, too.

We don't know the resolution of the display yet, but I could guarantee we're looking at a minimum of 1920x1080 (or 1080p). Now, HTC has three letters in its name - 3 letters - Half-Life 3 confirmed?!?!

MWC 2015 - HTC has just unveiled its first wearable device, known as Grip. HTC's Grip is a new smart fitness tracker, that tracks countless data on your nutrition, training, fitness, and injury prevention.

Grip features a curved display, and can connect with Android and iOS smartphones. Grip will train you "as if you have a team of professional experts coaching you for the entire time" says Peter Chou, the CEO of HTC.